I think some of it is grass looking greener on the other side of the fence.
Appreciate Drsaib's insights.
However, I think it is true in a sense that law is "easier" in the sense that you go to school for 3 years, take the bar, and then you are done with REQUIRED training. If you choose to, you can opt to work at some high powered firm where they'll work you to death, at least for a few years, but it's not REQUIRED. Most attorneys-in-training don't have to work 30 hours at a stretch with no sleep every 3rd or 4th night for months at a time...at least not as far as I know. I don't doubt for one second that they work horrible hours at a lot of these big firms, but at least they can take time to urinate and eat a little...I had nights on call as an intern when I really didn't feel I had time to do that. So there are docs who look back on all this and don't feel it was worth it. Now, with my 20/20 hindsight, I feel that it was. I think that is true only because I have a lot of passion for medicine and I enjoy taking care of patients. I know there were one of two people in my residency who really already didn't want to be there,and I shudder to think what they'll feel like in 20-25 years.
One thing that is important to remember about medicine is that residency of at least 3 years if basically REQUIRED to do any sort of clinical job. You will likely work very long hours and you won't have any choice about that. Also, it's almost impossible in a lot of cases to switch from one residency to another if you don't like the one you are in. Ditto for medical school...transferring is inordinately difficult, or impossible. You will march in lock step and you will do what your supervisors want you to do, how they want you to do it, when they want you to do it, and you'll take whatever crap they want to dish out to you and act like you like it. Granted, that may be true in a lot of jobs, but ultimately, most jobs are "quittable". Upper levels of med school and residency really are not. How are you going to quit med school in year 3 or 4, or quit residency, with 100,000 or 200,000 in student loan debt? Just make sure, to the best of your ability, that medicine is really what you want before you make that leap. Don't apply to med school b/c your family expects it or you just want the money. The job security is high and money is pretty good, but you won't get that money for 10 years or so and it may not be as good in the future as it is now...